A Paladin's Journey Ch. 18

"The Stones have been telling us for months, now, that darkness rises in the world," Immelanle said. "And they are right. We have decided that Verevendi will remain your leader through these times." A wave of confused muttering rumbled around the onlookers, and the Elders waited patiently for it to settle. To Aran's eyes, Verevendi looked as confused as everyone else, though he hid it better.

"Verevendi is clever and capable," Mandaralorn said firmly. "Would any among you question him as such?" When nobody spoke up, he continued. "Verevendi will continue making all decisions regarding Atlos. We trust him implicitly with the future of our tribe."

"What about you?" A Norothi piped up. Of middling height for a Giant, she was startlingly attractive, with sandstone skin and jade hair.

"Mandaralorn and I have a quest to fulfil," Immelanle answered. "It is time for us to find our cousins and bring them together, for we have been separate for too long." Aran silently lauded the Elders. This was the best outcome he could have hoped for. Verevendi was indeed a great leader, in Aran's opinion, and with Immelanle and Mandaralorn off to find the other Noroth tribes, Aran could concentrate on the next part of his plan.

"The Anarion," Mandaralorn added. "Is the reason we are home. His coming saved us from a fate worse than even death. The Eastern Gates are now open, and the border between the east and west has fallen. Old friendships must be rekindled before the Mor'ion comes to our shores."

"Verevendi and Aran will confer today," Immelanle said. "And you will all be given ample time to prepare. Mandaralorn and I will remain in the village temporarily, long enough to say a proper goodbye to all of you." A touch of sadness entered her voice at that last bit, and she left the Square, followed by Mandaralorn.

The crowd dispersed, and Aran approached Verevendi. Evoni came with him. He sensed some uncertainty in her, so he took her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed back. "Well, that was unexpected," the dark Giant remarked. He crossed arms as thick as trees across his chest. "Let us retire to my home. We have much to discuss."

Up near the peak of the village, the Steward's home was ten times larger than Evoni's, though inside it was just as simple. The Giants appeared to favour simplicity and minimalism over lavishness. "I apologise, Verevendi rumbled as Aran and Evoni entered through the fifty-foot tall door. "I have no furnishings to accommodate Humans."

Aran saw what he meant. Every aspect of the house was Giant-sized. The broad dining table was twenty feet high, with six matching chairs. A stew pot big enough to hold Strider hung over the fire, though the hearth was cold at present. "It is no bother. I am happy to stand. Would it be rude to stand on the table?"

Verevendi shook his head and lowered a hand, but Aran was already gathering his vala. He scooped Evoni up in his arms and leaped from the doorway, sailing through the air to alight on the polished wooden surface of the table. Evoni laughed delightedly as he set her down. "I didn't know you could do that!"

"I'm full of surprises," he replied confidently. Her eyes were sparkling. She was so beautiful. Did she even know?

"You most certainly are, Aran arohim," Verevendi agreed as he took a seat at the table. At this level, he and Aran were as close to eye level as they were going to get, which meant that there was still a good fifteen-foot difference. "I suppose there is no point delaying the conversation we must have."

Aran shook his head. "With respect, Verevendi, I think now is the time."

The rest of the evening was spent planning what would become of Atlos, and to where the Giants would march. As the night wore on, optimism began to rise in Aran. If the Elders were successful, the addition of the Giants would make an enormous difference to the coming war. A Giant had to be worth a hundred soldiers, at least. Could they fight, though? And what if Maloth had Giants of his own? That question would have to be answered at a later time.

When he and Evoni finally left Verevendi's home, they walked back down to Evoni's house in silence, hand in hand. As they were about to enter, she stopped. "I trust you," she told him. Her eyes were large pools drawing him in, glinting softly in the light of the low-burning bonfire nearby.

"Thank you," he replied. They kissed softly for a long time, standing there in her doorway.

***

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18.4: A Broken Dam

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In the middle of Maloth's enormous bed, deep in his quarters in Laefandell, Shenla moaned hotly as she undulated upon Maloth's cock, his size filling her as if they were a perfect match, like a lock to a key. She watched his face fixedly as her pleasure mounted. It was different, now, fucking him. Before she had thrilled to her toes even at his briefest touch, but now she saw the truth in his violet eyes; to him, she was merely another possession, a tool to be used, a weapon to be aimed.

The physical act itself still felt wonderful; her body was responding in all the right ways, but her heart was no longer involved. A flash of anger made her dig her nails into her brother's chest hard enough to draw dark blood, though it barely caused a response, just the briefest flicker of an eyelid. He was somewhere else, she could tell, despite the way he palmed her breasts roughly or gripped her hips with his powerful hands.

Still, his body gave her much pleasure, and his seed was the most potent available to her, though she hardly needed it, now. Her ahk'sheth provided her with more than enough power to overwhelm anyone who challenged her in this world, apart from Maloth, of course. And she wasn't done, yet. She cried out as her body spasmed yet again, and she felt fresh, wet warmth flooding her thighs as she came hard.

With a grunt, Maloth erupted inside her, and she felt the overwhelming rush of exhilaration as his essence flooded her being. It was like pure life being injected directly into her veins. She threw her head back and screamed at the high stone ceiling, the pleasure so intense it bordered on agony.

Unsurprisingly, he shoved her aside dismissively as soon as he was done, and got up, leaving her on the bed, gasping for air. Power flowed through her, raw and violent, every muscle and tendon in her body primed and taut. Gods, she loved this feeling! Such a shame this would be the last time. She rolled from the bed and got to her feet. Maloth's ahk'sheth were along the wall nearby, naked and collared, standing at attention with their hands clasped behind the smalls of their backs.

Her eyes drifted over them. Such a beautiful and powerful assortment of women could hardly be imagined, yet Maloth had acquired them all. Shenla wondered if perhaps he'd lost some of his humanity with each new addition to his collection? He was half-Human, after all, as was she. Unlike Shenla, Maloth seemed to despise his Human side. Shenla embraced it; you could not truly understand and control something until you had embraced it. She was sure Maloth had loved her, once. Perhaps he still did, somewhere deep down inside, but Shenla was not going to wait around to find out.

"I wish to speak with Ossarom," Maloth said curtly as he moved to sit in a plush chair by a tall arched window that overlooked the entire city. He clicked a finger and Adelain hurried over to position herself on her knees between his thighs, where she began attending him with her mouth and hands. "Find him, Mali, and bring him to me."

Mali left at once, and Shenla suppressed a triumphant grin. The chieftain of the Amun'noroth would prove difficult to find, if he had done as he said he would. Last evening's quiet meeting had gone rather well...

*

Two days ago...

Shenla strolled unaccompanied through the sprawling park in the east of Laefandell. Covering almost half a square mile of land, the park made up about one tenth of the total space surrounded by the city walls. Beautiful gardens and meticulously pruned hedges lined shining flagstone pathways that wound their way seemingly randomly through the park, though Shenla knew the paths were planned to offer the best views of the landscape as well as the city to the west. Sunlight would have glimmered off the surface of the myriad ponds and streams here, but none penetrated the boiling mass of clouds overhead. Lightning flickered regularly, throwing its purplish light across the sky, but Shenla hardly noticed anymore; once a thing became an everyday occurrence, one tended to ignore it, after a time.

The Amun'noroth had taken up residence here, in the park, preferring the solace of nature over the accommodations offered within the city. Their camp was where Shenla had been spending time - when she could be sure it would not draw unwarranted attention - with Ossarom. She had her eye on one or two Giant warriors as potential ahk'sheth, but she had kept that to herself, for now. It would not do for Ossarom to suspect this, as he was still sore over the loss of Mali to Maloth.

In fact, that very point was why the chieftain of Orris had even met with her at all. Ossarom wanted Maloth to pay for his trickery over Mali, though the Giant was smart enough not to say it. He hadn't even told Shenla. Not in words, anyway, but she'd seen the look in his eyes when he talked about Mali; Shenla knew love in a man's eyes when she saw it.

As she approached the camp, two broad Noroth men with arms like tree trunks halted her approach. Dark skinned and muscular, they blocked the walkway, folding arms across their smooth, bare chests. The Amun'noroth favoured simple garments, and these men were no different in loose, flowing breeches made of something like cotton. Their feet were as bare as their upper bodies. She couldn't help but eye them over approvingly.

"State your business," the one on the left demanded, his wide-nosed face hard. Like his companion, shaggy black hair fell to his shoulders, though he had a beard, where the other did not. Shenla sauntered up to him, adopting a smile she knew would warm his blood. She'd dressed for the occasion, too, in a skin-tight pair of leather breeches and high-heeled boots all in black, topped with a thin white blouse that tightly moulded the swells of her breasts. The blouse was unlaced halfway down, displaying as much cleavage as she could manage without falling out.

"Come, now, Argis," she purred, reaching out to caress the skin of his taut midriff. With him more than twice as tall as she was, she still had to reach upward to do it. "Is that any way to greet an old friend?" She pointedly dropped her eyes down to his waistline, where the cotton bulged outward; a mark of his Noroth-sized privates.

"Don't start something you can't finish," the other Giant said with a smirk. "You aren't built to handle a Noroth's love, girl."

"I think you'd be surprised, Vegar," Shenla told him coyly, looking up at him through her lashes. "I'd love to show you how surprised, but alas, I am here to see Ossarom." The two guards exchanged a quick glance, then Argis pursed his thick lips. "Shame," he said gruffly. "I've heard you can be quite the handful."

Shenla giggled, still playing the game. "You have no idea, big boy." She gave his cock the briefest of brushes through the thin fabric of his pants before slipping through the space between him and Vegar. OF course, she could have gotten into the camp without the two guards so much as seeing her, but she didn't want them to know the full extent of her abilities just yet.

The camp was in a large clearing hidden in a cluster of pine and elm. Huge canvas tents all in shades of brown or deep green were placed around the outer borders of the clearing, and a larger one occupied the rough centre of the area. She made for the centre tent, where Ossarom would be. Pushing the heavy flap aside, she entered to find Ossarom kneeling on the ground nearby, positioned behind a pretty Norothi Shenla had met before. Lina was on all fours, receiving a thorough seeing-to from the chieftain. An iron bowl hanging by a chain from the tent's peak cast low, flickering light that glimmered off the sweat on their dark bodies.

Shenla watched with interest as the two Giants fucked. Ossarom may be old, with that grey beard and shoulder-length grey-white hair, but he was certainly fit and strong. His thick arms corded from the grip he had on Lina's hips, and his buttocks flexed with the power of his thrusts. Shenla quickly grew moist watching the display. After a minute or so, Ossarom bellowed his release and emptied himself into Lina. His peak seemed to last some time, but finally he sagged and withdrew his gargantuan member from his lover. Shenla's eyes raked over the two-foot length of flesh. What would it feel like to be filled by that? Mentally, she added him to the list of creatures she wanted to fuck.

Ossarom's eyes fell on her as he and Lina got to their feet. Lina glanced briefly at Shenla, but offered no greeting. The Norothi was wary, unwilling to trust Shenla just yet, and she watched her chief expectantly, waiting to see what he would do.

"You may leave us, Lina," Ossarom said gently. At Lina's surprised expression, he added, "I do not believe Shenla means us harm. At least, not this day." His dark eyes studied Shenla intently. "If she wanted me dead, or captured, she would have done it by now."

Shenla suppressed a grunt. So, he did know about her strength. Well, she supposed it had to have come out sooner or later. She reorganised the plan in her head, adjusting for this new development. Ever since binding Caeledrin, her mind had sharpened considerably, a fact she was putting to good use.

Lina crossed the uncovered earthy ground of the tent to leave, eyeing Shenla carefully. Shenla stepped aside cordially. There was no point antagonising Ossarom's people. Moving further into the tent, Shenla began to unlace her shirt. "I have learned that Noroth prefer to have their meetings in the flesh," she explained as she shrugged out of the thin, clingy garment and bent to unlace her boots. She pretended to be focused on the task at hand, but noticed Ossarom's flagging cock returning to life at the sight of her bare chest.

Despite his body's reaction, though, he made a dismissive noise. "Do as you please," he told her, scratching his beard with a thick finger. He didn't take his eyes off her, though. Finished with the boots, she kicked them off and straightened. She began to peel off her pants, though she was careful not to make too much of a show of it. Deliberately, she did not stoke his lust with her power, either, as she had not with Argis and Vegar outside.

Finally - and happily! - naked, she sighed contentedly and smiled up at Ossarom. "Now, I was hoping to speak with you, Chieftain, if it pleases."

"We will see what is pleasing soon enough I suppose," he replied in a not-quite-sour tone. "You may speak." Even after two previous visits, he was still not sold on Shenla's integrity. He did sit on the ground, however, putting them at more of an even level. He hadn't done that before.

Moving a little closer, until there was barely three feet between them, Shenla decided on a whim to drop all pretence. "As you have no doubt gathered by now," she began. "I have not come here to harm, or seduce you, though the latter is unfortunate." She added that last bit with a warm smile that was not the least bit contrived. "I have come to warn you."

Ossarom's eyebrow twitched. "So, this is what you have been alluding to on these little visits of yours? If you've come to warn me of your brother's treachery, then you are wasting your breath, little one. I am already well aware of Maloth's moral integrity."

Shenla clenched her teeth. She hated being called 'little.' "There was a time," she began slowly, hoping she didn't sound annoyed. "That I would have followed him to the ends of the earth and happily obeyed every command he gave. That time is now at an end." Shenla was making a gamble, here. A very large gamble. If Ossarom went to Maloth...

"So," the Giant rumbled. "There is a rift between the two of you, yes?" Shenla nodded. "And how do you expect me to swallow this tale? I have heard stories of you, Shenla. Many stories. You use your beauty and your unworldly magics to bend wills and alter minds, all to get your way. You are no different from him."

Shenla took a deep breath, momentarily forgetting that she was a being lusted after by any man who laid eyes on her. It would be so much easier to just seduce Ossarom, but no, she was on this path now, and she would see it through. "The stories are true," she said. "I have done terrible things, but I am... changing, and so is Maloth, but in a different way." She paused for a moment, trying to piece together how she actually felt. Was she really, actually going to be honest about this? So long hiding, planning, protecting herself while she gathered her strength alongside her brother... She'd never felt so vulnerable, even when she'd first awoken.

Ossarom's gaze was searching. "Go on." She did, and once she began speaking, the words continued to tumble from her lips of their own accord. She told him about Maloth's rise to power, and how he appeared to care less about her each passing month. About herself, and how she was finding herself empathising with the people they conquered and seeing them less as tools and more as what they were; people with hopes and dreams and fears and flaws. Fear spiked in her belly when she started telling him where she and Maloth had come from, and who their mother and father were, but even then she ploughed forward.

About how her heart had broken the day Maloth had almost dropped her from the tower, and the look in his eyes. That cold, uncaring look. To Shenla's shock, a tear leaked from her eye as she remembered that day, and her voice broke, but she carried on until she was done. A dam had broken apart inside her, one that could not be mended, and her true feelings were the flood. Was this what it felt like to be... like them? The ones she'd been preying upon? Sickening visions flashed through her mind, memories of the faces of the people she'd killed, or hurt.

Bollin; Glinda's loyal retainer, his body wilting beneath her as she sucked up his life. That horrified look in his eyes even as he sought more pleasure. Siffy, Glinda's handmaiden, her body lying on the stone floor of the cave, her head twisted at the wrong angle after Shenla had snapped her neck with the same strength she'd stolen from Bollin.

A dozen Orcs; Barrog's warriors. None of them strong enough or fast enough to be stop her from slaughtering them like lambs. Beshok, Berenor, driven to mindless husks by her poisonous and addictive power before she ended their lives. Countless other nameless victims, used by her for their energy so that she may survive. So much pain she had caused. So much suffering.

Afterwards, Ossarom said nothing for a long time. Just as she was about to speak into the silence, he reached a huge hand toward her, beckoning her forward. She stepped closer to him and he put his hand behind her back to pull her in close. She recoiled at first, unsure what he was doing, but then he scooped her up with both hands and pressed her gently but firmly into his chest, cradling her against his skin.

Whatever he was doing, it didn't feel sexual. It felt... uncomfortable. Intimate. She considered escaping the embrace; even his strength could not match her own, but something stopped her. He began to make hushing noises, and she got another shock when she threw her arms around his thick neck and began to weep uncontrollably, her entire body shaking, wracked with sobs. When the tears finally stopped, she felt drained, exhausted. The last thing she remembered before she blacked out was being carried somewhere, held safely in Ossarom's arms.